Conn. Courthouses Evacuated After Bomb Threat Called into Governor

State police ordered the evacuation of 45 courthouses across Connecticut today at about 1 p.m. in response to a reported bomb threat.

The evacuation and subsequent police search of the buildings halted the activities of judges, juries and others with court business.

“All we know right now is there was a bomb threat,” Wayne Sandford, deputy homeland security commissioner, told The Associated Press.

The telephone threat was made about 10 a.m. on a phone line answered by a staff member in Gov. M. Jodi Rell’s office, according to gubernatorial spokesman David Dearborn.

U.S. Marshal John Bardelli told The Associated Press that bomb squads were sweeping federal courts in Bridgeport, New Haven and Hartford but that those courthouses remained open.